About Rhett Crites and Florida Equipment Appraisal

Rhett Crites has appraised heavy equipment, and only heavy equipment, since 2009. Florida Equipment Appraisal is the Florida service of Heavy Equipment Appraisal LLC.

Read the CMEA listing at NEBB Institute
Read his entry in the directory of the Certified Appraisers Guild of America
Rated 5.0 on Google

Studio portrait of Rhett Crites in a gray suit jacket and navy tie. — Rhett Crites, appraiser of heavy equipment since 2009.

Who does the work

He does each appraisal himself, from the first look at the equipment list to the finished report. He holds the Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraiser (CMEA) designation through NEBB Institute and belongs to the Certified Appraisers Guild of America (CAGA). He is IRS-qualified and active in the Turnaround Management Association, the professional group for restructuring and workout advisers.

He started the firm in 2009 to do one thing without distraction: appraise heavy equipment for people who have to defend the number to someone harder to convince than they are, such as an SBA reviewer, a CPA, an adjuster or opposing counsel.

Rhett Crites early in his career, leaning on the front tire of a Cat motor grader under a clear sky. — Beside a Cat motor grader, early in his career.

What he has appraised

The assignments range from a single machine to fleets of several hundred units. These are the kinds of work behind that range.

Equipment pledged as collateral for SBA loans, valued for the lender and for the SBA reviewer who checks the file.
Insurance loss appraisals, including work that went on to federal court.
Donated equipment, valued for the IRS Form 8283 that the donor files.
Fleets of several hundred units, appraised as one assignment.
Equipment divided in a partner buyout, where each owner needs a figure the other did not write.
Contractor fleets valued for a state prequalification filing.

Five rules the firm works by

Each one turns away paying work. They follow the ethics rule of USPAP, the national appraisal standard, and the code of ethics of NEBB Institute, which issues the CMEA designation.

The value follows the evidence: If a client says what the value has to be before the work begins, the engagement ends there. The standards bar an appraiser from taking an assignment with the answer set in advance, high or low.
The fee never depends on the conclusion: A quote rests on the scope, the number of machines, the level of inspection and the deadline, and never on the conclusion. A CMEA may not charge a fee that is a percentage of the equipment’s value.
The appraisal takes no side: The client pays for the report and does not steer it. In NEBB’s words, a CMEA is “an advocate only of the appraisal, not of any person or entity.”
No desktop report where an inspection is needed: Where condition decides the value and the records cannot show it, the equipment is inspected in person or the file is declined.
Heavy equipment only: No real estate, no aircraft, no livestock and no fine art. A generalist’s gaps in method are the first thing a reviewer finds, so work outside heavy equipment is declined.